WWII Plane Crash Remains Discovered in Western Canada

The wreckage of a World War II military aircraft was found in Canada's far west, solving a 72-year old mystery surrounding its disappearance during a training flight, officials confirmed Friday.

The Avro Anson twin-engine bomber went missing on October 30, 1942, when it failed to return from a flight that departed Sidney, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

Its four member crew — British Royal Air Force pilots Charles Fox and Anthony Lawrence, and Sergeant Robert Luckock as well as Royal Canadian Air Force Sergeant William Baird — were listed as missing and presumed dead.

But now their remains and artifacts have been identified, the British Columbia coroner's office said.

A logging crew discovered the wreckage of the plane in October 2013 on a mountainside near Port Renfrew, on the other side of the island, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Sidney.